It isn’t every day that a mountain bike super hero calls you up to go for a ride. Naturally, when Jeff Lenosky asked for us to show him around the trails at Brown County State Park in Indiana I jumped at the chance. He would get an opportunity to ride the notoriously difficult trail known as Schooner’s Trace, and I would get a chance to try out the latest treads – for both the bike and my feet.
This wasn’t my first time aboard the Mavic Crossmax XL Wheel Tire System, but it would the first time that I was able to ride them on trails in my backyard. On a perfect late Summer’s day we set out on what turned out to be an awesome ride with Jeff clearing all of Schooner’s. That may not sound like much, until you see the video of one of the more challenging sections next…
As a former IMBA Epic (now Hall of Fame Epic), Brown County state park is a great trail system for getting to know a wheel and tire combination. Packing a little of everything into somewhere around 30+ miles of trail (and growing), the trail has plenty of climbing where light weight set ups will be welcome, yet plenty of burly rocks and roots where durability will come into play. True to Mavic’s decision to classify the wheels as enduro adventure, I’d say busting out trials moves on something that barely resembles a trail could count as adventurous.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to clear all of Schooner’s trace, but that didn’t stop Jeff from making it look easy. The feat was even more amazing considering just how slippery most of the moss covered rocks were on a trail that doesn’t see much use. If there was any one place the Mavic Quest tire struggled, it was gaining a foothold on these rocks but considering how difficult it was to just walk them, let alone ride them, I’m not sure anything but the most aggressive, sticky rubber would have helped.
On the rest of the trail which included mostly hard pack single track with creek crossings, rocks, and moderate leaf coverage, the Quests were in their element. Fast rolling but still offering a big foot print with a 2.4″ casing, the Quest seems like it could be a perfect tire for the Midwest Summer. I’m not one to sacrifice cornering grip to roll faster tires, but the Quests have aggressive side lugs that bite hard. One of the advantages of a WTS is that the engineers know exactly what tire will be run on what rim meaning they can tune the shape of the carcass and tread to the way the tire mounts to the rim. Whether that had a lot to do with the overall performance of the Crossmax XL WTS is debatable, but the system does work quite well.
I don’t doubt that extreme terrain would wear the tires more quickly but for a pair of tires that had been ridden before my time on them, they seem to be holding up fairly well. At just 780g (claimed) for the 2.4×27.5″ tire they are astonishingly light for a UST Tubeless ready tire with a reinforced casing. I should point out that around here, Nobby Nics last forever, which should give you an idea of how our trails wear (or don’t) tires.
Mavic wheels have always had a distinct ride characteristic, and the Crossmax XLs are no different. That’s a good thing. In a world of carbon everything they offer an aluminum wheelset that doesn’t leave you wishing you had something lighter with stiffness in spades. Much of that overall stiffness comes from the 23mm wide (internal) Inter Spoke Milling rim that is held to the hub with their Zircral spokes.
Laced using Mavic’s Isopulse spoke pattern, the spokes are 2 cross on both sides of the front wheel, and 2 cross with a radial drive side lacing on the rear. Using the Mavic ITS-4 freehub the wheels provide 7.5º of engagement through the 4 pawls which engage 2 at a time. Available in both Shimano/SRAM and SRAM XD freehub bodies, we tested out the XD version.
To keep the wheels rolling the Crossmax XLs rely on QRM+ bearings or Qualité de Roulements Mavic+. Basically the best bearings Mavic offers which include a micro adjustment system on both the front and rear. Not only does Mavic still offer the wheels in all three sizes, but both wheels fit 9/15/20mm front axles and 9/12×135/12x142mm rear axles for fit on nearly any XC/Trail/AM/Enduro bike.
After a full day at Brown County, I was sad to see the wheels go as well as the tires. Obviously I have no reference for long term durability except for the fact that this is Jeff’s set of loaner wheels so they have seen some use, but after riding the same set up in California and now back at home I’ve come away impressed. You get a lot of performance for $1000 which includes both the wheels and the tires which is the price of some carbon rims.
Honestly this is the mountain wheelset Mavic needed to make. Light, wide, stiff, tubeless, the Crossmax XLs are the real deal.
The other Mavic part of the ride involved their Fury XC mountain bike shoe. Bright enough to act as a distress signal in case you get lost, this was my first experience with Mavic footwear. Fitting true to size, the overall feel of the shoe is extremely comfortable. The only area which may be of concern depending how your ankle is shaped, comes from the inner ankle cuff. It seems to come up a bit higher than many shoes which offers better protection but could lead to some discomfort. It really only seems to be a problem if you run your upper buckle super tight. Any time I noticed it bothering me I backed off the buckle a click which made things better.
While pedaling the yellow kicks seem to be extremely efficient which is probably the same reason they’re not great to walk in. The super stiff Contragrip/Energy Grip Terra Carbon outsole offers little flex at all which causes my heel to slip slightly when walking. On the bike for cross country or race use they’re great, but I wouldn’t recommend them for something like cyclocross use.
Thanks to Jeff for the ride! Seriously one of the nicest, most humble legends you’ll meet. Make sure to follow what he’s up to on the Official Facebook page, or check out his site.
